{"id":7906,"date":"2012-04-16T12:45:14","date_gmt":"2012-04-16T17:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?p=7906"},"modified":"2017-01-24T17:56:16","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:56:16","slug":"the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html","title":{"rendered":"Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2012\/04\/Wedding_Dress_Mannequin.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2012\/04\/Wedding_Dress_Mannequin-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Wedding_Dress_Mannequin\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7908\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the books <em>Fooled By Randomness<\/em> and <em>The Black Swan<\/em>, once said the following about fasting:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The reason fasting in its various forms is not practiced as the best medicine is because industry has not (yet) managed to make a profit from it. Try to generalize this very, very simple point to other substractive treatments and you will understand <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150594071338375&amp;id=13012333374\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">what we got ourselves into with modernity<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You\u2019re about to be proved wrong, Taleb. <!--more--> Or hopefully what follows is the exception that proves the rule. Either way he was right, until he was wrong. In fact, the following may be an unconfirmed Black Swan event!<\/p>\n<p>Ok, so you\u2019re a bride-to-be, and you have more money than you have common sense. You bought a wedding dress you can barely fit into, see, \u00a0but by a sheer act of will, you have found a way to lose those final 10 lbs in 10 days. A quick trip to the seamstress? How gauche. How <em>Occam\u2019s Razor-ish<\/em> of you to even consider such a move.<\/p>\n<p>Because that would be waay too simple, not to mention embarrassing. Besides, the alternative will only cost you a couple of doctors visits and $1500. And an additional benefit that is priceless? The whole time you\u2019re undergoing the \u201ctreatment,\u201d folks will think you\u2019re dying of some rare disease or something, instead of vanity induced insanity.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, the pity you will inspire as you starve yourself, under medical supervision, so you can look like the belle of the ball on your most specialist day ever.<\/p>\n<p><code><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;\" border=\"0\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/c.gigcount.com\/wildfire\/IMP\/CXNID=2000002.11NXC\/bT*xJmx*PTEzMzQ1OTYwODU1MjUmcHQ9MTMzNDU5NjA5NDQ*NyZwPSZkPSZnPTImbz*yOTYzYWE4Y2Y*NzM*YjQyOTlkNWJlNDJm\/ZGEzYTE2YyZvZj*w.gif\"><object name=\"kaltura_player_1334596059\" id=\"kaltura_player_1334596059\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allownetworking=\"all\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" height=\"360\" width=\"590\" data=\"http:\/\/cdnapi.kaltura.com\/index.php\/kwidget\/wid\/1_a89km68w\/uiconf_id\/5590821\"><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\"><param name=\"allowNetworking\" value=\"all\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><param name=\"bgcolor\" value=\"#000000\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/cdnapi.kaltura.com\/index.php\/kwidget\/wid\/1_a89km68w\/uiconf_id\/5590821\"><param name=\"flashVars\" value=\"autoPlay=false&amp;screensLayer.startScreenOverId=startScreen&amp;screensLayer.startScreenId=startScreen\"><a href=\"http:\/\/corp.kaltura.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">video platform<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/corp.kaltura.com\/video_platform\/video_management\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">video management<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/corp.kaltura.com\/solutions\/video_solution\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">video solutions<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/corp.kaltura.com\/video_platform\/video_publishing\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">video player<\/a><\/object><\/code><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wggb.com\/2012\/04\/16\/brides-to-be-turn-to-feeding-tubes-to-lose-weight-for-dress\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read all about it.<\/a> Um gentlemen? If your fiancee is this type of gal, I\u2019ll say a prayer for you now. I mean, this could be a sign that you may want to reconsider. <\/p>\n<p>And Ladies? This is what the 40 Days of Lent helps get you prepared for, and all for the low, low cost of FREE. Because $1,500 can buy an awful lot of this.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2012\/04\/Pabst_Blue_Ribbon_Six-Pack.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2012\/04\/Pabst_Blue_Ribbon_Six-Pack-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Pabst_Blue_Ribbon_Six-Pack\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7907\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the books Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, once said the following about fasting: The reason fasting in its various forms is not practiced as the best medicine is because industry has not (yet) managed to make a profit from it. Try to generalize this very, very simple point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,36],"tags":[138,87,8,31,285,286,35],"class_list":["post-7906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-living","tag-beer","tag-economics","tag-funstuff","tag-in-the-news","tag-mammon-makes-us-stupid","tag-vanity","tag-virtues"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the books Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, once said the following about fasting: The reason fasting in its\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the books Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, once said the following about fasting: The reason fasting in its\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Why I Am Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-16T17:45:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-24T22:56:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/files\/2012\/04\/Wedding_Dress_Mannequin-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html\",\"name\":\"Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-16T17:45:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-24T22:56:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\"},\"description\":\"Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the books Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, once said the following about fasting: The reason fasting in its\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Why I Am Catholic\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\",\"name\":\"Frank Weathers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frank Weathers\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity","description":"Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the books Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, once said the following about fasting: The reason fasting in its","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity","og_description":"Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the books Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, once said the following about fasting: The reason fasting in its","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html","og_site_name":"Why I Am Catholic","article_published_time":"2012-04-16T17:45:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-24T22:56:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/files\/2012\/04\/Wedding_Dress_Mannequin-225x300.jpg"}],"author":"Frank Weathers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Frank Weathers","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html","name":"Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-04-16T17:45:14+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-24T22:56:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc"},"description":"Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the books Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, once said the following about fasting: The reason fasting in its","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/04\/the-blindness-of-vanity-regarding-fastin.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Brides-to-Be and the Blindness of Vanity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/","name":"Why I Am Catholic","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc","name":"Frank Weathers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Frank Weathers"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}